Adding and subtracting energy quanta of the harmonic oscillator

Abstract

We propose a scheme to add/subtract excitations to/from an arbitrary quantum state or the harmonic oscillator. The method displaces the photon-number distribution and leaves its shape unchanged for a wide range of displacements. Mathematically this is realized by the action of phase operators of the Susskind-Glogower type onto the initial quantum state. Consequently, the shape of the phase distribution is preserved unless the number statistics are modified due to displacing it by subtraction onto the vacuum state. Starting with an initially coherent state one may realize pure quantum states displaying either amplitude or phase squeezing. The implementation of the method is based on interactions of the Jaynes-Cummings type, in the case of subtracting quanta one additionally needs to perform measurements on the electronic quantum state of the atoms. Our approach could be used for adding and subtracting both photons on a cavity field and motional quanta of a trapped ion.